My Love Will Not Let You Down
by pageslearntothink
Summary: ["You look like you've been crying – Mara's okay, isn't she?" / "Don't you remember? You were there." / "Azazel of Krodel." / "Your Majesties, this is an assassination." / "Run that way, toward the village. Do not stop for anything. I'm going to lead them away from you."] Final installment to the "Courage, My Love" trilogy! Contains my ships and a Poppy/OC pairing.
1. Chapter 1

**Hey!**

 **This took a little too long to write, but I guess I just needed to get used to a new story. :)**

 **This is the third and final installment to the _Courage, My Love_ trilogy. **

**Enjoy!**

* * *

Poppy's blue-green eyes squinted against the morning sun pouring through her bedroom window. The light caused her head to pound, and for a moment, she considered going back to sleep. But she forced herself to sit up. Her chamber maids rushed in to help her dress, giving short answers to any question she had before scurrying out of the room silently.

Poppy brushed off the strange way the maids were acting and left her room, floating down to her father's study. She knocked on the door gently. "Daddy, would you like to go riding with me before breakfast?"

When he didn't reply, she pushed the door open and peeked into the room. It was empty. She sighed in slight annoyance and swept a strand of her hair out of her face. She decided to find her mother instead and hurried up to the sewing room. But that room was empty as well.

Now she was going to have to search for them, Poppy realized tiredly. She popped into room after room, checking their bedchambers, the library, the throne room, the ballroom, the gardens, the stables, and even the kitchen, but her parents were nowhere to be found.

Where on Earth could they be?

As Poppy rounded a corner, wracking her brain for a place she might have forgotten, she bumped into someone.

"Poppy," Jerome acknowledged stiffly. "Are you all right?"

Poppy looked up at her older brother curiously. "Gerbil, are _you_ all right? You look like you've been crying – Mara's okay, isn't she?"

Jerome's eyebrows drew together in confusion. "Why would…? Poppy, what are you talking about?"

"You look awfully upset—"

"And you don't. Why is that?" Jerome snapped.

Poppy took a step away from him, fiddling with the end of one of the sleeves of her light green dress. "Why should I be upset? Look, I'm sorry you woke up on the wrong side of the bed. Let's start over: Good morning, Jerome, do you know where Mum and Dad are?"

Jerome gripped her shoulders and met her eyes sadly, saying softly, "Poppy, Mum and Dad are dead."

Poppy stared at him in stunned silence, her mouth opening and closing, trying to form a coherent sentence.

"Don't you remember? You were there."

Poppy shook her head violently, tears stinging her eyes at the thought of never seeing her parents again. "No, this…this is a bad dream. I'll wake up and Mum will be at my bedside and Dad and I will go riding like we always do."

"Pops, this isn't a nightmare," Jerome whispered, wrapping his arms around her when she tried to push away from him. He held her tightly as she sobbed into his chest.

* * *

" _It was a beautiful wedding," Joan commented from her side of the carriage, across from her husband._

" _Indeed it was," John nodded._

" _Not as beautiful as Gerbil and Mara's," Poppy shrugged from between Joan and Mara._

" _Patricia and Eddie's wedding could beat ours. You never know." Mara teased._

 _Jerome gasped jokingly. "Never."_

 _Mara laughed lightly, linking her arm with Poppy's when they passed over a rough patch in the road._

" _These roads need to be fixed, don't they?" Jerome mumbled._

" _A job for you when you're king, Son." John replied._

" _Thanks for leaving me all the hard—Why are we stopping?" He demanded, looking out the window._

" _Driver, why did we stop?" John asked._

 _He was about to speak up again when he didn't receive an answer, but the whole group froze when a sword stabbed right through the wood between Jerome and John. Poppy shrieked in fright and John and Jerome drew their swords._

" _Guards?" John called._

 _Another sword speared the carriage right above Mara's head._

" _Come out, drop yours swords, cooperate, and I won't harm your children." A man's voice came from outside the carriage._

 _Jerome met his father's eyes. He nodded once and Jerome followed him out of the carriage. They dropped their swords and helped the women out onto solid ground. Two men stepped forward to pick up their swords while two more came up behind John and Jerome to bound their hands with rope, and then moved on to do the same to the queen and princesses._

" _Wonderful, let us be on our way," the man that must've been the leader sheathed his own sword and began walking into the forest._

 _When they reached a clearing, the man ordered for them to be lined up on their knees before him._

" _What is it you want?" John asked calmly._

 _The man sighed heavily, keeping his back to them, running a hand through his long black hair. "I don't want anything from you."_

" _Then why are we being held hostage?"_

" _Hostage?" The man laughed deeply. "I'm not holding you hostage."_

" _Why else would we be here?"_

" _Can I not kidnap you simply for the fun of it?" He finally turned to them, surprising the family with his bright red eyes._

" _Azazel of Krodel," John murmured in realization._

" _Oh, you've heard of me?"_

 _John didn't reply._

" _I admit that I did bring you here for a reason." He stopped in front of Jerome. "Although, I wasn't told that your son would be with you. This is a treat." He gripped Jerome's chin, keeping his eyes focused on his. "You look ravishing on your knees, Prince."_

 _Jerome jerked his chin out of Azazel's hand, receiving a delighted laugh from the man._

" _Feisty and defiant. I'll bet you like it rough." He remarked, slipping his fingers into Jerome's blond hair to give the ends a tug. His next statement caused Mara's cheeks to redden in embarrassment and possessiveness, "I can guarantee that I can satisfy you better than your wife—"_

" _What do you want, Azazel?" John pressed, jerking the criminal out of his fantasies._

 _Azazel reluctantly took a step away from Jerome to stand in front of John and Joan. "I told you: nothing. This isn't a robbery or a random act of violence." He removed the necklace that hung around his pale neck and wrapped it around one of his hands. The diamond in the necklace flushed red and as he focused on the king and queen, his eyes began to glow. "Your Majesties, this is an assassination."_

 _When he said this, Poppy and Mara screamed and Jerome cried out for him to stop. The king and queen choked out gasps in sudden pain when their chests were torn open, blood pouring from the wounds. They collapsed onto the forest floor and Azazel gazed in sick pleasure at the blood that had appeared on his hands._

 _Azazel took a deep breath as if to savor the moment and then returned his attention to Jerome. "Until we meet again, Prince."_

 _Poppy sobbed violently, laying on the ground beside her mother's lifeless body._

* * *

Nina, Queen of Sirius, jerked awake when her carriage bumped violently on the road. She straightened and directed her attention to her bodyguard. She noted his troubled expression as he gazed out the window. "What's wrong?"

Mick's blue eyes darted to her briefly. "We're in the Glyphwood Forest."

Nina's eyebrows furrowed. "Glyphwood…isn't that—"

"Overrun with criminals? Yes."

"Did we take a wrong turn? Does the driver know?"

Mick didn't get a chance to reply. Dirt, rocks and wood flew from the ground as the carriage flipped onto its side. Mick's head smacked against the door as he fell and he groaned in pain before coming to his senses. He reached over to Nina's side of the carriage and gripped her arm. "Are you all right?"

"I'm okay. What was that?"

"Catapult. We need to move, now."

"Are they trying to rob us? Did they recognize the carriage?"

"I'm sure it's more serious than that," Mick said, lifting himself out of the coach through the door on the upturned side. He helped Nina climbed through it next and wrapped his hand around her wrist, pulling her into the woods. "The driver's gone. I'm betting that he was paid to drive us through here so you could be kidnapped or assassinated."

Nina struggled with the skirt of her dress, picking it up off the forest floor, and trying to avoid all the obstacles among the trees.

"There should be a village just a mile or so ahead." Mick notified her and looking back for a moment before he suddenly jerked her forward roughly, pushed her to the ground, and covered her body with his protectively right before another bolder landed feet away from them. The bellowing thud caused their ears to ring, but Mick shot right back up, sliding his hand from her wrist and into her hand.

Nina blinked at Mick's back and reached for him when he pulled her to a stop. "You're hurt—"

"It's nothing I can't handle," Mick assured her quietly, hearing men running and shouting through the trees around them, and pointed to the distance. "Run that way, toward the village. Do not stop for anything. I'm going to lead them away from you."

"But—" She began.

Mick gave her a gentle push in the direction. "I'll be right behind you. Go!"

Nina watched him run off, and then took off herself. Her skirt caught on bushes and low hanging tree branches scratched her arms. She made the mistake of looking back, hoping to see Mick, and she tripped over a large rock. She grunted in pain as she landed on dirt and fallen leaves. Huffing in aggravation at her dress, she rolled over and sat up. She pulled at the fabric, trying to rip it and give her legs more freedom so she could run faster, but her green eyes caught something moving among the trees.

As the large man stalked toward her with his sword unsheathed, Nina's heart pounded in her chest and she looked around for something to defend herself with as she scrambled back to her aching feet.

But just as the man raised his sword to smite her, another sword pierced his chest and he fell, dead, on the ground.

Mick rushed forward. "Are you okay?"

"Yes," she panted, "How—?"

"You didn't lose faith in me, did you, Highness?" He grinned, leading her through the woods again.

"Never."

* * *

 **Yeah, my summary was just a bunch of lines from the first chapter. :P**

 **"Your finger tips across my skin, the palm trees swaying in the wind, in my chest. You sang me Spanish lullabies, the sweetest sadness in your eyes. Clever trick. But I never wanna see you unhappy. I thought you'd want the same for me." -Almost Lover, A Fine Frenzy**

 **-Rachel**


	2. Chapter 2

**Well, I've only gotten one-two reviews on each of the things I've uploaded, and yes, I appreciate them, but I still feel zero motivation and I'll probably end up leaving again but oh well.**

 **I don't usually update unless I get four reviews on the last chapter, but I don't even have four readers anymore so here.**

 **This is a pretty sucky chapter that I just forced myself to write the other day even though I didn't want to. I don't want to write any of these stories...**

* * *

"J, are you okay?" Mara asked, gently resting her hand on his shoulder.

Jerome held up his hand and she placed hers in it, entwining their fingers. "I will be."

Mara scooted closer to him and leaned her cheek against his shoulder, following his gaze out into the streets of Legayn. "Poppy didn't want to come home?"

"No. I think this has been hardest on her." Jerome murmured.

"She avoided me at the funeral."

"You weren't the only one. I'm just trying to give her space."

Mara tightened her grip on Jerome's hand briefly, before he suddenly dropped her hand and ordered the driver to stop the coach. He opened the door and stepped down to the cobblestone road, commanding the guards to arrest someone.

"Jerome, what are you doing?"

He turned back to his wife before she could follow him. "Stay there, Mara."

"What's going on?" Mara questioned without taking another step.

"Joy's here."

* * *

"Jerome, calm down. You're scaring her to death." Mara said, pulling him to the other side of the room.

Joy stood before the thrones in the palace, her wrists bound in chains.

"She's a witch!" Jerome hissed.

"How can you be certain it's her? We destroyed the witch's amulet, remember?"

"She was powerful. What if she expected us to find a way to kill her? What if she had a way to…resurrect herself? What if someone else brought her back? Like that man that my parents were so afraid of?"

"That was quite a few 'what ifs,' J," Mara sighed.

"If I let her go, and she is the witch, she'll probably bury our kingdom."

"If you keep her here and she's not the witch, you'll be holding an innocent woman here against her will. There's no proof she's the witch. That's not the kind of king you want to be is it?"

Jerome took a deep breath and carded a hand through his thick hair as he cast a glance back at Joy. "What are you thinking, darling?"

Mara's expression softened. "The witch's version of Joy was fake—a duplicate—which could mean that the real Joy had never come in contact with me, you, or the witch."

Jerome nodded, silently telling her to continue.

"Can I ask her a question or two of my own?"

"Of course, my love," Jerome stepped aside and Mara walked up to the young lady in custody.

"I'm sorry for my husband's brashness, Joy. He just lost his parents. He's a little stressed." Mara said softly.

Joy smiled a little at Mara and nodded in understanding.

"Do you mind if I ask you what you're doing in Legayn?"

Joy sucked in a shaky breath. "I'm caring for a friend. He fell ill shortly after arriving."

"Have you ever seen Jerome or myself before today?"

"No, Princess, I—I've never been in Legayn before Monday."

Mara looked over her shoulder and met Jerome's eyes. He took a step closer, reluctantly. "Release her," he ordered the guard standing a couple feet away. He faced Joy. "Please forgive the inconvenience and my rude behavior. I had mistaken you for someone my wife and I had crossed paths with a long time ago. I hope this incident hasn't soured your impression of Legayn."

Joy rubbed her skin when the shackles fell from her wrists. "Apology accepted, Your Highness. I understand that you were just protecting your family."

Jerome didn't say anymore as she was ushered from the throne room. When he and Mara were the only ones left in the massive, open space, he collapsed into what used to be his mother's throne and covered his face with his hands. "I'm so sorry, Mara."

"There is no need to apologize, J." She assured him, dropping to her knees before the throne and placing one hand on one of his knees while the other pried his hands away from his face.

"I can't do this—" he gasped out "—I can't be king. I'm not ready."

"Darling," Mara whispered, swiping her thumb beneath his eye to catch a fallen tear. "Don't doubt yourself because of one mistake."

* * *

Poppy started when a hand laid upon her shoulder as she sat on her knees in the royal crypt that was hidden in the hills north of the village. She looked up at the person behind her and shot up off the floor immediately. "Dante…"

"I came as soon as I heard. I am so sorry, Poppy." Dante whispered into her shoulder as he wrapped his arms around her tightly.

"They were assassinated…and I don't even remember it happening." She wept, clinging to him, fisting her hands in his cloak.

"Maybe it is best you do not remember."

"How did you get here so fast?" Poppy asked once her tears had stopped falling, and they were just sitting in the crypt together. "No one knew for several days after it happened. A trip from Cenizas would've taken a few days longer."

Dante let out a breathy laugh that ghosted across Poppy's neck. "You caught me. I was meeting with the King of Idon when I was told."

"Oh, you're coronation was last week!" Poppy realized. "I'm so sorry I couldn't be there for you. It must have been the best moment of your life and I wasn't there."

"You will be with me for many more 'best moments' of my life, love." Dante smiled. "Do not apologize. I understand that you were needed here."

* * *

Mick rapped his knuckles against the wooden desk to wake the inn keeper behind it. The old man stirred and opened one eye to size the bodyguard up. "What do you want?"

"I need your best room for the Queen of Sirius."

"Your queen's name means nothing here, boy. Get lost."

Mick expected such an answer and dropped a bag of coins onto the desk. "Your finest room, please. Now."

The man perked up at the sound of coins clinking against coins and swiped the bag off the wood. "Come with me."

Mick motioned for Nina to go first and they followed the inn keeper up a flight of stairs and into a hallway. He opened one of the doors, told them to enjoy their stay, and began walking away, but Mick caught his shoulder.

"This is your _finest_ room, sir?" Mick asked in a low voice.

The chubby inn keeper swallowed and closed the door, leading them to a different one. This door led to a set of stairs. "This is a room reserved for our noblemen. But I suppose I can make an exception, just this once." He said.

"Thank you," Nina smiled, trailing after Mick to the door at the top of the wooden steps.

Nina instantly walked up to a barrel of water and filled a pot with it before stoking a fire in the iron stove. "Let me clean your wounds. They'll get infected if you leave them any longer."

"Don't worry, Highness. I'll be fine. Get some rest." Mick replied, making his way back to the door.

"That's an order, Mick." Nina sighed tiredly.

Mick froze with his fingers wrapped around the cool metal handle. He faced her again, slowly. "As you wish, My Queen."

He took a seat on the bed when she instructed him to do so and removed his dirty tunic.

When the water had warmed enough, Nina carried the pot to the bed, setting it on the floor. She dipped her handkerchief in the water and rung it out. Mick tensed when she placed her hand on his shoulder.

"I haven't done anything yet." Nina chuckled.

"Your hands are cold," he replied after a beat of silence.

"I'm sorry," she said, gently dabbing the cloth on the cuts on her back. "What...what are all these scars from?"

The corners of Mick's lips quirked up a little. "I've collected some souveniers over the years as your bodyguard."

Nina's eyebrows furrowed and she touched the back of his head. She removed her fingers when he hissed in pain. "You have quite the goose egg back there."

"Besides a minor headache, it doesn't bother me."

Nina didn't say anything else as she pulled a small shard of wood from his skin.

"If you don't mind me asking, Highness, how do you know how to do this?"

"I watched my mother patch up my father more times than I can count." She laughed lightly at the memory. "My father was such a baby, he hated letting the nurses see him whine about any kind of pain. There all finished."

"Thank you, Your Majesty. Now, please get some sleep."

Nina laid down in the bed, watching Mick pull his tunic on over his strong shoulders as he left the room so he could stand outside the door, to protect like he always has.

* * *

 **Check out the "Second Chances" board on Pinterest (tryingtobreathe) and let me know what you think of the characters, or tell me who you pictured as the characters! :)**

 **"Bring the fire, bring the smoke, bring the rain. We will bend, but we will never break. If we believe we can't lose, even mountains will move. It's my faith, it's my life. This is our battle cry!" -Battle Cry, Skillet**

 **-Rachel**


	3. Chapter 3

**Oh, hello, there.**

 **Thought I'd update.**

 **I'm basically obsessed with Azazel from the first chapter so...I got into writing things and now I'm tempted not to finish the series with this story, or at least have a spin-off...**

 **Okay, enjoy? If there's anyone still out there. :/**

* * *

"Do you think it was best to leave the girls in Legayn?" Alfie asked as he, Jerome and Eddie walked through the Withered Woods of Thoth.

Jerome pushed a branch out of his way and let it whip back to Eddie, who stopped it before it could smack him in the face.

"They'll be fine," Eddie answered Alfie after shooting an annoyed look at the back of Jerome's head. "I think we should worry about us. Where are we even going, Jerry?"

"There's meant to be a man that lives in these woods. He's said to be so old that he'll know who this man my parents were so afraid of was, or is."

After a few minutes more of trekking through the forest and mumbled complaints from Eddie, they stopped at the edge of a clearing.

"See, there it is," Jerome announced in relief, motioning to a cottage in the middle of the clearing.

Eddie strode up to stand by Jerome. "No one in their right mind would live here!"

"I think all those years in a palace has made you shallow, my friend." Jerome teased.

"No, he's right, this place is a dump." Alfie cut in, patting Jerome on the shoulder.

"Listen to the stable boy," Eddie chuckled.

Jerome's shoulders slumped a little. "Still, he's gotta be here."

"Maybe he's dead," Eddie shrugged and turned to leave.

"Eddie, we need to know more about this threat."

"If this threat is real and your parents had good reason to be afraid of this man, then we need to be ready for him. We are not ready for a war, Jerome. We need to go back home and not go gallivanting through the forest to find a man that probably doesn't even exist just because you're mad that your parents are dead."

Jerome's jaw tightened. "That's not what this is about."

"So you're not hoping that this hundred year old hermit might be able to tell you how to find the man that killed them?" Eddie snapped.

"I just want to be the king my parents believed I could be."

Eddie's expression softened.

The princes looked over at Alfie simultaneously to make sure he was still with him. The dark-skinned man grinned brightly from underneath a dying tree where he was sitting amongst the twisted roots. "Don't mind me. Please, continue."

Eddie shook his head at himself, carding a hand through his blonde hair. "Sorry, Alfie."

"No, you two are entertaining. Especially to that raven." He said, uncharacteristically serious.

The boys' eyes darted over the branches, in search of the bird Alfie had pointed out. The raven was perched on a thin branch of an oak tree not far from them. Its head twitched curiously, black eyes staring down at them.

"Ravens aren't very common in the Withering Woods," Jerome murmured.

"Oranges aren't very common in Legayn. I eat one every morning." Eddie retorted.

Jerome glared tiredly at Eddie's back before turning his attention back on the raven just as it flapped its wings and flew over their heads toward the cottage in the clearing. It soared across the open space and then landed on the shoulder of a tall man that had been walking out the front door. He scowled at the three men with piercing blue eyes.

"What do you miscreants want?" He snarled.

Jerome was too excited to gloat to Eddie about being right. He stepped forward. "Are you Victor?"

* * *

"He told me that I can make all the decisions." Patricia sighed, sitting beside Amber on the sofa in the palace's large sitting room. Poppy and Mara sat across from them in two separate armchairs. "I don't want this kinda responsibility."

Her statement got a laugh out of her friends.

Poppy sat forward a little, casting a curious glance at the strong wooden doors to the room. "Did anyone hear that?"

"What, Poppy?" Amber questioned, pushing a strand of her long blonde hair behind her ear.

Poppy's reply was cut off by a crash in the hallway outside the door.

The four girls stood from their seats.

"Gregory?" Mara called, addressing the guard that stood outside the door.

The doors swung open, revealing a man in a black cloak. He gazed at them with cold eyes. "You should really have reinforcements for your reinforcements, my ladies."

"Poppy, come here," Mara whispered, holding a hand out to her sister-in-law. Poppy gripped it quickly, coming to Mara's side.

"Who are you?" Patricia demanded, her eyes flitting to a sword that was a few feet away from her.

"Must I tell you my name to take you prisoner?" The man looked over his shoulder at one of the men that had followed him in. "Take them."

Patricia rushed for the sword on the table and unsheathed as the soldier reached her.

"Don't make this difficult, Patricia."

Patricia glanced at him when he said her name, and her eyes caught movement in the corner of her eye. Another soldier was threatening Amber with a sword at her neck. Patricia swallowed, acknowledging the unspoken ultimatum, slowly lowered her sword. The soldier closest to her kicked the sword away and roughly bond her hands behind her back, while the same was done to the others.

As they were being escorted through the door, Poppy gasped, pulling at her restraints.

"Dante! Look out!"

* * *

Dante watched Poppy and her friends disappear behind the doors from across the room and turned to his uncle. "You promised you would not harm Poppy."

Rufus sighed tiredly, pinching the bridge of his nose. "How does that saying go? If you want something done right, do it yourself?" He took a threatening step closer to Dante. "You didn't hold up your end of the bargain, boy. I had to do everything myself."

"I got you into Legayn." Dante protested.

"You promised no problems getting into Legayn in exchange for your princess' life. I had to kill several men to get in, it caused me a great deal of stress, which is a problem. Therefore, I will not keep my promise."

Dante stormed away from his uncle angrily, pushing soldiers out of his way roughly as he made his way down the hallway to the staircase that led to the bedchambers.

* * *

Nina took Mick's offered hand and stepped up into the brand new carriage. He climbed in after her and sat down directly across from her. When she leaned her head against the edge of the window and closed her green-blue eyes, Mick took the chance to observe her silently.

"Are you okay?" He asked softly, hoping not to disturb her if she was resting.

Nina opened her eyes and met his. "I don't know how to repay you for all you've done for me."

"There's no need for you to repay me, Highness. You're my Queen. I knew what I was doing when I became your bodyguard."

Nina's lips pulled into a small smile. "Your oath was that you would protect me, even at the cost of your own life. You've done more than that all these years."

Mick bowed his head respectfully. "Please pardon my correction, My Lady, but my promise was that I would stand by your side until the day I die."

Nina held his gaze, fondness shining in her eyes. "Did you have any idea what you were getting yourself into?"

Mick allowed himself to chuckle. "I'm afraid I did."

* * *

 **Thanks for sticking with this story even though I'm a horrible person! :D xxxx**

 **"I swear, you're the only reason I keep breathing. I swear, you keep on giving me the reason to keep believing. Finally I'm worth it, though I'm not perfect, it still feels right. And I keep on giving, trying to make a difference in my life." -Best Of Me, The Letter Black (from _My Love Will Not Let You Down - Inspiration Playlist_ on Spotify - check it out!)**

 **-Rachel**


	4. Chapter 4

**Wow, you guys are still here! Hiya!**

 **Thanks for sticking around! :D**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Alfie fidgeted under the raven's stare.

"Corbierre doesn't like vermin." Victor told him.

Alfie cast an offended look at Eddie, who, in return, smiled in amusement.

"Victor, my parents told me about a man that slaughtered hundreds of people—"

"Rufus."

Jerome blinked. "Rufus?"

Victor turned to him, stroking the back of his raven's neck gently with the tips of his fingers. "The man's name is Rufus."

"Do you know anything about him?" Eddie asked.

"I know that he's alive. I also know that he must be stopped before he can get what he wants."

"You know what he wants? How?" Jerome pressed.

"He and I had the same goal once: to live forever."

"How is something like that possible? Magic?"

Victor grumbled under his breath and lifted a thick book off his desk in the middle of the room. He held it out to Jerome. "Everything you need to know is in this book."

Jerome looked down at the brown cover as he took it from the old man, reading the title to himself: _The Book of Isis._

"Now leave me."

Jerome passed the book over to Alfie. "Why can't you just tell us everything yourself?"

"There's too much to say and not enough time."

"How do we stop him?"

"The book will tell you everything." Victor repeated. "Get out."

Jerome remained where he was as Eddie and Alfie left the hut with the book.

"Can you read Egyptian?" Alfie asked Eddie, looking over the pages of the book.

"No. Can you?" Eddie wondered in response.

"I'm afraid not."

"Then we are at an impasse."

"Indeed."

Jerome licked his thin lips, blocking out Eddie and Alfie's conversation, and taking a cautious step closer to Victor as the man prepared tea for himself. "Victor, what do you know about Azazel of Krodel?"

Victor's movements froze for a moment before he continued, tensely. "What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into that you've heard that dreadful name?"

"How I heard it is irrelevant. I want to know where I can find him."

Victor sat at his desk with his tea and clasped his hands together. "I advise against seeking him out. I dare say that he is far more dangerous than Rufus."

"Rufus has murdered hundreds of people." Jerome argued.

"Azazel has slain thousands more."

Jerome dragged a hand through his blonde hair in aggravation.

Victor pinched the bridge of his nose as if it pained him to think of Jerome confronting Azazel. "Tonight, he'll be at the pub in town. He won't be there any earlier than seven o'clock."

Jerome nodded once. "Thank you."

* * *

When the door to Poppy's bedchamber swung open, Dante whipped around and rushed forward to help Poppy off the floor after a soldier at pushed her into the room. He glared at the guard, but before he could yell at him, Poppy had slapped his hands away from her.

"Don't touch me," she hissed, picking herself up. She quickly lengthened the distance between them, gripping the silky curtain that covered her bed for comfort.

"Poppy, my uncle is a very powerful man. I had to do as he said."

"You're the king," Poppy said, bravely meeting his eyes. "You have more power than he does."

"You do not know him, love. He always finds a way to get what he wants. He cuts down anyone that gets in his way. I did this to protect you."

"Protect me?" Poppy repeated incredulously. "This is your idea of protection?"

"I—" He froze, his brown eyes widening as he looked down at her.

Poppy dropped her hand to her side, her palm stinging after it connected with Dante's cheek. "You're a coward. You lied to me. Send me back to the dungeon, I don't ever want to see you again. I _hate_ you."

Dante walked away from her, stopping in front of the window that overlooked the ocean beneath the cliff the palace sat upon. He called for the guard that had brought Poppy up from the dungeon and ordered her to be returned to her cell.

Against his better judgement, he cast one more look at her as she was led out of the room.

The betrayal in the blue-green eyes he adored sucked the breath out of his lungs.

* * *

Victor glanced at the clock on his wall. A quarter past six. A knock on his door caught his attention.

"You don't have to knock, Azazel." Victor called out in annoyance.

The door opened, revealing a smirking Azazel with his sword drawn. "Victor, how nice to see you again."

"You need a sword to kill me?"

"Of course not. That is rather impersonal after all." Azazel thrust his sword into air, successfully spearing Corbierre when the bird had attempted to attack him.

Victor couldn't stop himself from flinching when he watched his beloved raven die.

Azazel unceremoniously flicked his sword to the side, causing the bird to fly off the blade and smack into the wall before falling to the floor. "I always hated that blasted bird."

Victor didn't take his eyes off Azazel's glowing ones as the man made his way up to him. He clutched his necklace in one hand and placed the other on the back of Victor's chair, leaning closer to him. "Any last words, old man?"

Victor opened his mouth to say something, but he hacked violently instead. His hands shot up to his neck as blood rushed up his throat.

"Well, nothing important ever did come out of your mouth anyway." Azazel said, watching as Victor coughed out some of the blood that gurgled in his throat. His head fell back on his shoulders, his blood staining his face and beard, dripping onto the floor as he stared lifelessly at the wall.

* * *

"Poppy, it's okay to cry." Amber assured the young girl while they all stood in a damp, dirty cell in the palace's dungeon.

"I don't want to cry over him." Poppy sniffed stubbornly. "Besides, we have to figure out how we're going to get out of this."

Mara took a deep breath and let it slowly. "Jerome won't be back for several days, I'm sure."

"Then it's up to us." Patricia shrugged, gripping the bars on the cell door. She looked down both ends of the hallway. "We're the only ones down here. There are no soldiers around. We could easily make it to the door."

"We need to get out first." Amber pointed out.

"The one single day you decide not to pin your hair back, Amber." Patricia said with a roll of her eyes.

"Well, please excuse me, Patricia, but being thrown into a dungeon cell was not on my schedule." She replied snippily.

"Let's not fight." Mara cut in quickly.

"Let's focus on what we do have, rather than what he don't." Poppy added.

"KT," Patricia realized, "She's still upstairs. She must have an idea to get us out."

"If she's still alive." Amber stated softly before she could stop herself.

Patricia glared at her harshly. "She's not dead. It seemed like those men were killing anyone that got in there way. KT's smart. She wouldn't have tried to stop them on her own."

"So we just wait for KT to break us out?" Poppy guessed.

"Exactly. I have complete faith in her."

* * *

Azazel looked up slowly when someone sat across from him at the tavern table and a pleased smile crept onto his face. "Prince, what a pleasant surprise."

Jerome's expression was hard and cold as he stared at him, leaning back in the chair, and blocking out the sound of laughter and cheerful chatter from the other patrons behind him.

"What can I do for you?" Azazel asked when he realized Jerome wasn't going to say anything.

"I want to know why you killed my parents."

Azazel's black eyebrows rose and he let out a chuckle. "I would tell you. For a price."

Jerome rolled his eyes at the older man's suggestive wink and unsheathed his sword, lifting the tip to hover centimeters from Azazel's long neck. "How about your life?"

Azazel's blood red eyes narrowed. "Oh, darling, you are so for out of your depth," he spoke menacingly.

"You don't care if you die?" Jerome asked, ignoring the threat. The end of his sword made contact with Azazel's neck.

"I don't mind it," he shrugged a shoulder. "It hurts a little and if you don't bathe straight after you begin to smell like, well, death, which despite the thrill of both experiencing it and inflicting it upon another person, it has a rather unpleasant aroma."

"You're testing my patience, Azazel. Tell me. Why did you kill my parents?"

Azazel winced a little when Jerome pushed the sword harder against his neck, breaking the skin, and blood leaked from the wound, racing down his deathly pale neck, staining the collar of the dark blue shirt he wore. "Since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you that I didn't kill them just to feel their blood against my skin—"

"Why?" Jerome growled.

Azazel sighed when he was interrupted and then continued, "I'm an assassin for hire, Prince. I was _hired_ to _assassinate_ the King and Queen of Legayn."

"Who hired you?"

"Now that is information I can never disclose— _ow_ —" he grunted, glaring at Jerome harshly. Before the other could even blink, Azazel wrapped his hand around the blade of the sword. Blood spilled from his cut palm and fingers and dripped onto the table as he stood, ripping the weapon out of Jerome's grip. He swiftly swung the sword around to touch the tip to Jerome's neck. "I told you: you're out of your depth. You have no idea who you are dealing with. Didn't your parents tell you about me?"

Jerome shrugged indifferently, regardless of the sword at his neck. "I guess you're not as famous as you thought."

Azazel smirked, feeling the buzz of energy that filled his head when his eyes began to glow. He saw Jerome's jaw tighten at the sight. Azazel lowered the blade and set it down in the middle of the table. He breathed out slowly as he sat himself back down in the chair and locked eyes with Jerome as they faded back to their abnormal red. "My client and I performed a blood oath to keep their identity a secret, as I do with all of my clients. It keeps them, and more importantly, me, safe."

"Tell me and I won't kill you." Jerome said, leaning forward on his elbows.

Azazel smiled bitterly. "If I do tell you, you won't have to kill me."

"Blood oaths are just over exaggerated promises. You can tell me."

"No, I can't. If you had done your research before you came in here and threatened me, you would know that when one partakes in a blood oath with Azazel of Krodel, it's real. The consequences of breaking that oath will happen."

"What will happen if you tell me?"

"My client will have the ability to kill me."

"I have the ability to kill you." Jerome said tiredly, his right hand twitching atop his knee.

"I don't think you have it in you," Azazel said, and gasped in shock when Jerome's sword speared his chest.

Jerome didn't even flinch when he twisted the blade and met Azazel's eyes. "I think you're wrong."

* * *

 **I wrote the last scene weeks ago. I'm _obsessed_ with Azazel. I don't remember how I got the idea for his character...**

 **Thanks for reading, loves! :***

 **"Rooms full of trophies of all the victims before me. Nothing left but the bones stacked up like a collection. You got me smothered in bliss, you suffocate with a kiss. You take away all the fight, then bring me down to submission." -House of Chains, Apocalyptica (from _My Love Will Not Let You Down - Inspiration Playlist_ on Spotify - check it out!)**

 **-Rachel**


	5. Chapter 5

**I think whenever I update, I'll do it on weekends. Just so I'm not pressured to update as soon as I get reviews you know? I get so excited when someone reviews that I want to write and finish and post a chapter immediately, but I never manage to and then I get discouraged and stop writing for a while. So yeah, I think weekends, when I can, are good. :)**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

"You've been summoned."

Patricia's eyes immediately rolled in irritation at the guard's announcement. She and her friends her bound again and led down the dank dungeon hallway to a heavy door. The staircase behind it led to another door that was several yards from the kitchen entrance. Just as the guard stepped through the door after the girls, he collapsed on the stone floor after being hit in the head with a shovel.

The girls smiled in relief.

"I knew you'd save us, KT." Patricia sighed.

"I'd only risk my life for my best friend." KT laughed nervously as she cut the ropes from their wrists with a carving knife. "Come on, we have to hurry."

She and the others crept out of the kitchen, into the hallway that led to the throne room. KT felt around behind a window curtain and pushed on a specific place, which triggered the wall beside the window to slide inward and then to the side, revealing a dark passage way.

"I didn't know the palace had secret passages," Poppy whispered, her eyes wide with excitement.

"Perks of cleaning the whole palace from top to bottom." Patricia smirked, following KT down the passage after the wall had closed behind them.

Their heels clicked against the wet stone beneath them. Water dripped into a puddle from an unknown source. In certain parts of the tunnel, where the bricks were cracked, they could feel cool air blowing through. The only light came from KT's torch, behind them was darkness and before them was darkness.

"We're not going to fall into anything, are we?" Amber asked, her voice bouncing off the walls.

"No, we've been down here before. It's safe." Patricia answered.

"Usually when people say something is safe, it turns out to not be so safe." Poppy murmured.

"But we know where we're going," Patricia assured her.

KT switched the torch she held from her right hand to her left. "Only a little ways to go before we're at the end of the tunnel."

"Thank you so much, KT." Mara said.

"My pleasure, My Lady." KT bowed her head before pulling a lever at the end of the tunnel and the wall swung slide open just like the one in the palace.

They were in the garden.

* * *

Dante sat in the garden gazebo and casually looked around, noting that several guards had given themselves a break to gamble and laugh in one entrance to the garden. He noticed one of the palace walls opening and shot up, making his way to the girls that came through the wall.

All but KT looked scared to see him, assuming he would raise the alarm that they were escaping, but he cast one last glance at the occupied guards and then jerked his head toward the second garden entrance. "Come, your horses are saddled. I will help you leave."

When none of them followed them, he impatiently waved his hand. "Hurry, we do not have much time."

Poppy was the last to follow him, the most wary. She trusted Mara's judgement and Mara had been the second one to follow him and KT.

When the group reached the stables, Amber shrieked in horror when she was the first to see the three bodies that lay bleeding out in the hay. The guards that stood waiting for the girls grabbed Dante as well.

* * *

The cell door slammed shut behind the girls again and the guard locked it. Patricia angrily stomped off to a corner and leaned back on it, arms folded tightly across her chest. Poppy remained close to Mara, avoiding Dante's gaze. KT and Amber stood closer to the cell door to see better from the light of a single torch that was on the wall.

Rufus appeared to them, dark cloak dragged on the floor behind him, his left hand resting on the hilt of his sword.

"You're a foolish boy." He said, shaking his head in shame.

Dante wrapped his hands around the bars of his cell door across from the girls'. "You will be severely punished for this. I am still your king!"

"Only because my sister married your father. Though I don't know why she did. Your father was a coward. Just like you. Isn't that right, Poppy?"

Poppy's head shot up, stunned, realizing that he must have heard their conversation.

"You see, Princess, everything my nephew has ever said to you was true. That's why I had to take matters into my own hands. The lad was falling in love." Rufus sighed heavily. "Don't send a boy to do a man's job."

"Let them go. They do not have what you want, do they?"

Rufus arched an eyebrow at Dante. "I'm not sure just yet."

And he left the dungeon without another word.

"He is right." Dante murmured, slipping a hand through his dark hair.

"About what?" Poppy asked quietly.

"I was stupid. I should have known that was a trap. I am sorry, Poppy."

"It was all a plan. You asked KT to help you?"

"Yes."

"She could have gotten killed." Poppy spat, and Dante's eyes rose to meet hers in guilt.

"Princess, it's okay," KT spoke up boldly. "It was my choice to try to rescue you."

"Poppy is right," Dante said calmly, backing into the wall behind him and sliding down the stone until he was sitting on the floor. "I could have gotten us all killed, especially you, because he does not need you, KT."

"Why does he need us at all?" Mara inquired.

"He is looking for a key of some sort. That is all I know about what he is seeking."

Amber stopped stroking her arms for warmth. "Do you know what this key opens?"

"No. But I do know that whatever is being held behind the lock that key opens is power, a power my uncle can not ever hold if there's any hope to defeat him."

* * *

Jerome pulled on his horse's reigns, bringing it to a halt on the trail in the woods. Eddie and Alfie stopped a few feet ahead of him when they noticed that he wasn't with them any longer.

"What's wrong, mate?" Alfie asked.

He shrugged. "I don't know. Just a weird feeling."

Eddie could see the palace from the trail. He nodded toward it. "Come on, we're almost home."

"Welcome home, Sirs," The guard at the gate greeted with a tight smile, the enemy soldier behind him unseen by the three men.

"Thank you," Jerome nodded as they rode into the palace court yard after the gate was raised.

They steered their horses to the stables and dismounted. Eddie pushed the door open and Ra whinnied in fear, raising up on his hind legs, and the other two steeds did the same. "Woah, boy, what's the matter?"

"Eddie," Jerome gripped his arm and pulled him away from the door. Their eyes landed on the sight of blood that had startled the horses.

"What the hell…?" Alfie gulped.

"The girls," Jerome said, his heart picking up its pace at the thought that his wife and sister may be harmed.

Forgetting the horses, the three of them took off toward the palace entrance, hurriedly pushing the doors open. Jerome unsheathed his sword when his eyes landed on the man that sat in his father's throne.

"Took you long enough," Rufus huffed.

* * *

 **This was a shorter chapter than the last two. :/**

 **"There's nothing I can do, my heart is chained to you, and I can't get free. Look what this thought's done to me. And it's killing me when you're away, I wanna leave and I wanna stay. I'm so confused, so hard to choose, between the pleasure and the pain." -Not Strong Enough, Apocalyptica**

 **Apocalyptica is one of my latest obsessions.**

 **That and 00Q - has anyone else seen the new James Bond movie _Spectre?_ Reviews said that it was the best Bond movie, but I totally don't agree. Skyfall is my favorite for reasons - *Silva*. And btw the opening song was the worst song a 007 movie has ever had. But anyway the only thing that I really really liked about the movie was Q and the way he and Bond interacted. Q was already one of my favorite characters (both Q1 and Q3 - Q2 was meh) since the beginning and Spectre is the movie that made me start shipping 00Q so yeah. :D **

**Stay amazing, lovelies. xx**

 **-Rachel**


	6. Chapter 6

**Sorry this chapter took a while. It's longer than my other chapters and I wasn't quite happy with it until today when I rewrote half of it.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Jerome glowered at the man sitting in his father's throne. "Rufus, I presume?"

Rufus stood, but didn't reply.

"Why are you here?" Eddie demanded.

"I came here in search of something. I've yet to find it. I'm wondering if you know where it is."

Before the boys could ask what he was looking for, a guard entered the room with a crying girl in tow.

"Patricia!" Eddie rushed forward.

"One more step and she dies." Rufus warned, unsheathing his blade.

The door on the other side of the room swung open with another guard bringing in a second prisoner.

"Piper!" Patricia exclaimed.

"Patricia, what's going on?" Her twin sobbed.

"If you hurt her, you bastard—" Patricia shrieked, struggling in the hold of the guard that was keeping her restrained.

Eddie looked between the two of them in confusion.

"Give me what I want and I'll spare them. Take too long and I'll start killing people." Rufus lifted Patricia's chin with the tip of his sword. "Starting with the oldest twin."

"What is it you want?" Eddie growled.

"A necklace. A locket shaped like an eye."

Alfie and Jerome shared a confused glance.

"I've never seen anything like that before," Jerome spoke.

"Why would you think we have it?" Alfie asked.

Rufus scowled. "If you're going to lie—" He raised his sword, ready to strike Patricia down, but a voice rang out calmly,

"Wait."

Rufus stopped and turned to glare in the direction of the voice. "What?"

Azazel stepped into the room. "Allow me to get the information you seek."

Jerome stumbled back a step upon seeing Azazel again. He swallowed thickly. "How are you…?"

Azazel grinned. "Devilishly handsome? Undeniably clever? Utterly delectable?"

"Terribly insufferable," Eddie supplied under his breath.

"Alive," Jerome whispered. "I killed you."

"I know. I have to say I'm rather proud of you. I really did not think you had it in you."

"You killed my parents for Rufus. He's the one who hired you." Jerome realized.

For a split second, Jerome thought he saw relief in Azazel's eyes, but it was gone as soon as it came. Azazel returned his attention to Rufus. "Grant me the pleasure of interrogating Jerome."

"What makes you think you'll be more successful than I?"

"I have my methods."

Rufus sighed reluctantly and nodded once. "Take them all to the dungeon, but follow Azazel with the young king."

Jerome's sword was yanked from his hand and his arms were gripped firmly by two soldiers. They hauled him down a corridor and into one of the servants' bedrooms where Azazel flung a rope up into the rafters. He tied both ends around Jerome's wrists, above his head, and then instructed the soldiers to leave the room.

"How can you still be alive?" Jerome questioned.

"You did kill me," Azazel told him, pulling his black leather vest off his shoulders. "But I came back."

"That's impossible."

"Maybe for some, but for Azazel of Krodel? It's quite simple."

Jerome watched him carefully. "Well? Aren't you going to torture me?"

"Impatient, aren't we?" Azazel smirked. "We're getting to that, darling. I have you strung up and looking pretty for me. I want to take my time."

Jerome's hands twitched above his head when Azazel reached out to him and removed his cloak, tossing it to the side. He then unfastened the buttons on Jerome's tunic and pushed it open, his smirk morphing into a full grin when Jerome swallowed, focusing his eyes anywhere but Azazel. Azazel's hands slid onto Jerome's hips, causing the blond to jerk a little in surprise at the cold touch.

"Tell me, Prince—"

"I'm a king," Jerome corrected through gritted teeth.

Azazel chuckled, idly tracing a finger down Jerome's chest to the hem of his pants. "I prefer 'prince'. It makes you sound so innocent."

"I don't know anything about a necklace, Azazel."

"Saying that won't stop me, sweetheart." Azazel sang, splaying his hands on Jerome's torso. "Beautiful…"

"How did you come back?" Jerome asked, attempting to distract Azazel by talking about the man himself.

Azazel chuckled; a dark and rumbling sound that seemed to reach his fingertips on Jerome's skin. "I'm an amazing multi-tasker, Jerome." He purred. He removed his hands from Jerome and used one to push some of his black bangs out of his eyes. "But I do love a good origin story."

Jerome refrained from sighing in relief when Azazel began to widen the distance between them.

"I was raised in the Ethwith Monastery in southern Krodel. Monks in Krodel practice magic, and I was their youngest apprentice. I learned simple things such as moving objects"—Jerome's belt buckle slipped open—"and making things disappear"—with a flick of his hand, Jerome's tunic was gone—"and a few other things that aren't going to aid me in this setting."

Jerome's jaw locked.

"I was a child," Azazel continued, "It was an accident. I wasn't ready to use my magic on my own, and I killed a farmer while trying to help him with pitchfork—but how is irrelevant. A normal child would run home, crying, and apologizing for being so stupid, or perhaps a normal child would have run away from home—I'm not sure, I was never a normal child—but I hid the body and went home, lying about where I had been. See, the adrenaline that had surged through my veins caught my attention and I wanted to feel it again. The monks kept a special book under lock and key called _Len Enoum_ _Mach_ —roughly translated as the Book of Blood, but the untranslated name is so much better. That book taught me everything I needed to know, and I slaughtered every monk in that monastery, just because I wanted to. I was only nine years old."

Jerome watched Azazel remove his necklace and wrap it around his hand.

"All I need is this necklace and to look at my victim." Azazel whispered, once again coming too close for comfort, and he gripped the back of Jerome's neck. "Just like what I did to your parents."

Jerome struggled in the ropes again, his body shaking with rage.

Azazel looped his necklace around Jerome's neck and carded a hand through Jerome's hair to push it away from his face. "I love it when you're angry. I can feel it in my bones. I especially love it when that anger is directed towards me."

"Go to hell, you sick bastard." Jerome spat.

"Looks like I'll be taking you with me." Azazel lifted the pendent off Jerome's bare chest so the young king could see the glowing red stone.

"What was the point of telling me your life story if you're going to kill me?"

"Oh, don't be silly, I'm not going to kill you. You're going to kill me."

Jerome's eyebrows furrowed and he looked at Azazel. "What are you talking about?"

"I'm not doing that," Azazel replied, nodding toward the glowing gem, "You are."

"I can't do that," Jerome scoffed.

"I felt this energy in the clearing, in the pub, and now, I feel it vibrating through the room. You are very powerful, you just didn't know it. Now all you have to do is look at me and think about how you want to kill me right now, and if it works—"

"You'll win, and that's what you want." He cut him off. "So I won't kill you."

"But you want to. I want you to."

Jerome's head fell back in aggravation. "Why me? What did I do to deserve being interrogated by a homicidal masochist? I'm not even being interrogated!"

"That's because I know you don't know anything. I just want you to show me that you have the spine to take someone's life without lust for vengeance. Kill me, Prince."

"If I kill you, you'll come back, and you'll laugh and say you're proud of me. I don't want your approval, Azazel."

"You would avenge your parents' deaths. Again. I would be dead for five minutes—five hours if it's really messy. You might have time to escape."

"I'm not killing you again, Azazel."

Azazel smirked and then closed the distance between them again. "I believe you can withstand any kind of torture. But if you're unfaithful to your wife—that could break you."

"You seem to expect a lot from me." Jerome commented as calmly as he could.

"I can be persuasive." Azazel replied, slipping one long finger past the hem of Jerome's pants. He leaned forward and pressed his lips to Jerome's collarbone. He extended his tongue and licked up to Jerome's ear as his hands gripped the blond's belt, pulling it from the loops of his pants. He nipped at Jerome's ear and Jerome instantly jerked away from him, momentarily forgetting that he was hanging by his hands by the rafters, his feet barely touching the ground. He swung back to Azazel and the older man wasted no time in continuing his exploration of Jerome's neck as he began tugging his pants down—Azazel's movements halted and he collapsed with a broken neck.

Jerome gasped for breath, staring at Azazel's lifeless body before he started struggling with the rope that bound his hands above his head. He twisted his right hand, trying to slip it out, bloodying his wrists in the process, and just as he felt it start to come free, a hand clasped over his wrist, and he looked up into Azazel's red eyes.

Azazel laughed and removed his necklace from Jerome's neck. "I'm proud of you, Prince."

"That was less than five minutes."

"A broken neck doesn't take as long to heal as say, a sword through the heart."

"Get on with this interrogation. I did what you wanted. Now, take me back to my wife, and let me and my friends find a way to defeat you and Rufus."

Azazel took a step back. "I was just trying to have some fun."

Jerome rolled his eyes.

"Listen, I'm not a part of this…whatever this is. Rufus is planning something, but I don't know what it is. He's just having me kill people he doesn't want in his way, like your parents and Victor."

"You killed Victor?" Jerome swallowed.

"And his bloody bird." Azazel added and then he chuckled. "Don't feel guilty. We had a history, and I've been looking for him for many years. He had it coming to him."

Jerome sighed heavily.

"Jerome, I'm willing to make a deal with you."

"After what you told me about your blood oaths, you think I'd be stupid enough to make a deal with you?"

"I'll tell you all I know about this, if you swear that you'll never track me down to kill me."

"Specific. You think I'd look for you for any other reason?" Jerome arched an eyebrow.

"I know you will," Azazel smirked, unsheathing a knife from his belt and cutting at the rope that held Jerome's hands. "Swear it."

"How do I know you haven't told me all you know already?"

"You don't."

Jerome grit his teeth. "I swear that I'll never track you down to kill you if you tell me all you know about Rufus' plans."

Azazel grasped Jerome's hand and sliced the blade of his dagger across his palm. Jerome grunted in pain. Azazel cut his own palm, not evening batting an eyelash at the pain.

"If I do not tell you everything I know, you have the ability to kill me, for good this time." Azazel said, clasping their palms together, their blood mixing in between their skin. "And if you break your oath, your sister will die a slow, painful death."

Jerome's heart picked up its pace.

"The deal has been struck."

Jerome shakily pulled his hand away, feeling light-headed. "Now, tell me everything."

* * *

"Well?" Rufus demanded as soon as Azazel entered the throne room while Jerome was hauled to the dungeon.

Azazel ignored Rufus and faced a maid that was shakily going about her duties. "Your king has offered me a glass of his finest wine. I'd like to have it now."

The young girl gulped and nodded, scurrying out of the room.

"Azazel," Rufus growled.

Azazel rolled his red eyes and clasped his hands behind his back. "He doesn't know where the necklace is, but he does know what it is. He said that it was auctioned off at the family's yearly charity ball."

"Does he know who bought it?"

"No, but he said his father kept a log of the auctions in his study. It's a thin red book."

"It took you over an hour to get that much information out of him?"

Azazel grinned wolfishly. "I got distracted."

Rufus rolled his eyes in disgust and brushed past him, ordering several soldiers to follow him.

Azazel watched him go and squeezed his right hand into a fist, taking pleasure in the pain that shot up his arm. The maid that he had sent out to get him a glass of wine came back, head hung to avoid his eyes. Azazel took it without a word of thanks and sprawled out across the king's throne with a smirk as he sipped his red wine.

* * *

"We thought they might have killed you," Alfie exclaimed when Jerome was shoved into the cell across from the girls.

"At one point I wish he would have." Jerome grumbled, looking through the bars and seeing Mara and Poppy. "Are you two okay?"

"We're fine…. What happened to your hand?" Poppy asked.

"Nothing, don't worry about it. We're going to get out of here."

"It doesn't look like you were tortured," Eddie observed. "What'd that guy do?"

Jerome shook his head. "I bought us some time. He was willing to betray Rufus and told me everything he knows."

"You believed him?" Mara questioned.

Jerome shrugged. "He was telling the truth. I could tell."

Mara and Eddie shared a wary look across the hallway.

"How long do you think it would take Rufus and half a dozen soldiers to tear my father's study apart?" Jerome asked.

Eddie scratched behind his ear thoughtfully. "Not enough time for us to get out of here, but the gate is probably guarded by Rufus' men anyway, so it really wouldn't matter if we did manage to get that far."

Sighing heavily, Jerome leant back against the bars.

"So you bought us time, huh?" Patricia taunted from the other cell. "Just a few extra minutes until the inevitable: we're going to die."

"Do you have any bright ideas?" Jerome snapped.

"Don't start arguing," Mara cut in quickly before Patricia could retort. "The last thing we need is to turn on each other. We'll figure this out."

"We're locked in your dungeon, here," Patricia scoffed, "And the only people that could have helped us stupidly ran in halfcocked and got themselves thrown in the same dungeon. Please tell me how we're all going to get out of this without any complications."

"I could have let him kill you and your sister, you know."

Eddie stared at Jerome in shock. "You wouldn't have let that happen."

"To protect Mara and Poppy? Yes, I would have."

"He would've killed them too!"

"I'll do whatever I have to, to protect my family."

Eddie locked his jaw. "So I'm not your family?"

Jerome chose not to reply, immediately regretting everything he said in the last few minutes, and dragging his fingers through his hair as he paced to the other side of the cell, wishing he was alone so he could clear his head. "I…I'm sorry, Eddie." He whispered, squeezing his eyes shut. When Eddie didn't say anything, he turned.

"You're acting strange, Jerome." Poppy said quietly.

Jerome shook his head, pressing the heels of his hands against his closed eyes. "I'm just tired and I…I don't know how we're going to get out of this either. Dad would know what to do."

The sound of footsteps in the tunnel made everyone look up as a guard unlocked the door and told Jerome that Rufus wanted to see him again. Jerome let the man bind his wrists and lead him to the throne room once again where he instantly felt the weight of Rufus' hatred as the man glared at him.

"Where is the book?"

"I told Azazel where it is." Jerome said.

"I couldn't find a red log book in your father's study."

"I don't know where he kept it. My father had a lot of secrets. I didn't know him as well as I thought I did."

"Bring me the queen." Rufus ordered one of his followers gruffly.

"Leave her alone," Jerome ground out. His eyes flitted to Azazel. "So you stop him from killing Patricia but not my wife?"

"First of all, I didn't stop him from killing anyone, I just had an opportunity to play with you and I took it, and it just happened to at the exact moment that maid's life was threatened. Second of all, I don't like her."

Before Jerome could say another word, the doors behind him flew open.

* * *

Dante gripped the bars of the cell door, his eyebrows drawing together as he stared down the hallway of the dungeon.

"What's going on?" Amber wondered as the pounding of boots against stone got closer to the cells.

The men and women huddled around the metal bars, waiting for whatever was coming down the tunnel. Suddenly several of Rufus' men rushed through, looking over their shoulders as if they were being chased.

Dante stretched his arm out of the bars, catching the cell guard around the neck, and clutching him tightly against the door until the man's eyes rolled into the back of his head and slumped in Dante's grasp. The young king let the guard fall to the floor after he swiped the keys from his belt and unlocked their door and then the other.

"Come on, we need to find Jerome," Mara said hurriedly, leading the way to the first staircase that led up to the palace.

What they found when they entered the throne room wasn't what they were expecting. Some of Rufus' men seemed to be in a panic, fleeing from soldiers that were wearing blue cloaks with golden trimming as they challenged them. The throne room was a bloody battlefield, bodies of both sides dotting the once sparkling marble floor.

Mara spotted Jerome on the other side of the room, with a sword in hand.

Eddie took a sword from a fallen soldier and gripped Mara's arm. "Jerome's fine. We need to get you out of here though, okay?"

Mara swallowed and shook her head, shaking Eddie's hand from her arm and started making her way across the room, stopping only to take a sword for herself.

"Mara!" Poppy called. "What's she doing?" She saw Jerome for the first time and sighed in relief, squeezing Eddie's arm. "Come on."

"Poppy," Eddie groaned. "No one's listening to me! Dante, make sure Poppy's okay. Alfie, get Patricia, Piper, and Amber to the kitchen."

"Cockroach," Patricia began warningly.

"Patricia, I don't want to argue about this." Eddie said, his tone expressing his stress, and telling Patricia that was the end of the conversation.

But as Eddie joined the fight, helping one of the soldiers in blue cloaks, Patricia scoffed and rolled her eyes, finding a sword for herself as well. "Alfie, let's find Rufus."

Alfie's eyes flitted to Eddie for a second before he shook his head and hurried Amber and Piper out of the room.

* * *

Poppy crept out from behind the thrones, eyes locked on Jerome, only yards from her, when someone walked in front of her. She looked up at Azazel as he observed the fight calmly and started walking toward the door. She stumbled backward, back thumping into the wall behind her as she realized that she recognized his face. "Azazel of Krodel," she whispered her father's words. She felt like her breath had been sucked out of her lungs and her eyes welled up with tears, all at once remembering her parents' murders.

A clash of swords right before her jerked her out of her memories and she saw Dante fighting an enemy soldier that had gotten too close to her. Poppy's hands shook at her sides and she was unable to move from the wall. She couldn't even cry out in warning when another soldier came up behind Dante as he killed the first one. He whipped around quickly, lifted his sword, but the soldier's blade came down first, and Dante's sword fell to the marble floor. He screamed in agony, sprawled on the floor, staring at his wrist in terror where his right hand at been moments ago. Poppy's eyes went wide, and she finally pushed off the wall and picked up a helmet, knocking it into the soldier's head.

Poppy rushed to Dante's side, swallowing the bile that rose up her throat, and helped him stand. "We have to get you help before you bleed out."

Dante nodded, tears pouring down his cheeks as he clutched his arm to his chest, and let her lead him to the nearest exit.

* * *

Patricia kept her eyes trained on Rufus as he fought his way to an exit, and when she was several strides from him, a sword swung up in front of her and sliced through the throat of an enemy.

"What the hell do you think you're doing?" Eddie demanded.

"Get out of my way, Eddie." Patricia snapped.

"I told Alfie to get you all out of here."

"You can't order someone to have me removed from the room."

"Actually, I can."

"I had a chance to kill him, Eddie."

"I don't care."

"Jerome!"

Patricia and Eddie's heads whipped around toward the sound of Mara's shriek, just in time to see a soldier wrap his arm around Jerome's neck and push his sword into his back, penetrating Jerome's abdomen, and letting Jerome fall to the floor.

Mara hurried to her husband, falling to her knees and pulling his head into her lap as Eddie tried to stop the bleeding with his cloak, but Jerome had breathed his last before he had hit the floor.

Mara sobbed. "Jerome?" She whispered, stroking his cheek, unable to look away from his blue eyes.

* * *

 **I don't think I've ever killed Jerome in any of my stories. Oh well.**

 **A few things:**

 **First, I'm going to attempt to write my 12 Days of Christmas thing. Um, but I won't be doing any parodies this year, probably just random oneshots. So if you have a prompt for me, I need them. I would be writing for Jara, Peddie, Mina, Amfie and Jabian as always, and I might post some Christmas-y Jalex chapters on I Swear on My Life. :)**

 **PM me, review here, or review on one of my 12DoC stories. :D**

 **Second: I was recently informed of a fanfiction writing contest at _(slash) fandom2_**

 **I'm thinking of entering (though I probably won't win cause the HOA fandom is practically nonexistent now) so which story of mine do y'all think I should enter? Read the contest description and let me know! :)**

 **Third, I'm considering writing a spin-off of this trilogy about Azazel, what do y'all think?**

 **"Pull me closer to you. I can't escape this emptiness I fell into. Caught in a shadow I can't see through. I'm nothing without you. What have I become? Can't face the morning sun. Just save me. You're the only one who can pull me out, save me from myself. Just save me, just save me." -Just Save Me, Like A Storm**

 **-Rachel**


	7. Chapter 7

**(Don't think this is a V-Day gift, 'cause it isn't. I don't celebrate V-Day.)**

 **Holy crap. Holy CRAP. HOLY CRAP. HOLY. CRAP.**

 **Okay, idk if this is me coming back. But I finished this chapter this morning and I thought I'd post it. First time I've written something since my 12DoC fail.**

 **Lots of reasons that I've been gone include finishing up my senior year, dealing with my depression, learning how to adult, helping my neighbors move, and helping out around the house when my mom was injured.**

 **If you have any questions, please PM me on here, Tumblr, Twitter, Instagram, or Pinterest.**

 **Enjoy!**

* * *

Mara covered her face with her hands, sobbing heavily, as she sat on a stool next to a bed in the infirmary where Jerome lay lifeless.

Eddie sat on the other side of the room, between Peter and Clarissa's bodies, teeth clenched angrily so he wouldn't cry.

When the door swung open, and Poppy entered the room, Mara rushed to her quickly as she stumbled toward her brother's bed.

"Mara, I don't understand why all this is happening," she cried, hugging her sister-in-law tightly.

* * *

"I never knew you could be so sexist," was the statement from Patricia that made Eddie slam the doors to the balcony.

He turned to her as she stood at the railing with her arms crossed over her chest defiantly. "I'm not being sexist, Patricia. I'm being protective."

"I could have killed him!"

"He would've killed you before you had a chance to raise your sword!"

Patricia clenched her teeth, refusing to look at him, and keeping her eyes focused on the top of the pavilion in the garden.

"Look, I understand that you don't want to be the damsel in distress here. You don't want someone to save you. You want to prove to me, everyone, yourself, or whoever that you can do something more than clean a palace. And I believe in you. I believe that you are strong enough to do it." Eddie told her, his voice thick with sincerity, and he turned her toward him so he could cup her face in his hands, brushing the pads of his thumbs over her pale cheeks. "But I have lost my biological parents, my adoptive parents, a sister that I don't even remember, and…my brother. I love you more than I have ever loved anyone. I can't lose you too. _I_ am not strong enough."

Patricia took a deep breath and placed her hands over Eddie's as she gazed into his watering eyes. Eddie let out a tearful laugh and wrapping his arms around her shoulders, pulling her into his chest as she let him find security in her embrace.

"Comfort's not really you're forte."

"I'm willing to give it a shot for you."

* * *

Amber took Mara's hand comfortingly and rested her head on her friend's shoulder as they sat in the sitting room. Behind them, Eddie stood, his back to them, his arms crossed and shoulders tense. Patricia sat in a chair across from Amber and Mara. Alfie paced in front of the glass doors that led to a balcony, and skidded to a halt so he would run into Piper when she walked through them.

"Sorry," he murmured.

Piper cast a glance at her sister and felt like the silence in the room was too heavy to be broken. She nodded to him, avoiding his eyes, and rushing to Patricia where she sat on the floor beside the chair and laid her head on her older sister's lap. Patricia continued to stare straight ahead, in Eddie's direction, but not really seeing him, as her hands moved on their own accord and began braiding a strand of Piper's auburn hair.

Poppy stormed into the room a moment later. Her entrance did nothing to snap any of them out of their thoughts. "Why are you all just sitting around?" she demanded. None of them looked up. She wiped at her tear stained cheeks. "Jerome's dead and we need to find Rufus and stop him, for Jerome."

"Poppy, go be with Dante—" Mara spoke, her voice barely above a whisper.

"He's asleep. He's fine. Jerome's not—"

"Poppy, this shouldn't be about revenge." Alfie said gently.

"No, this is about justice!" Poppy exclaimed. "We can't just wait for Rufus to kill someone else we care about—"

"Stop, Poppy," Eddie growled, finally turning to face the others. His eyes flitted over each of his friends' faces before he could stop himself, and his voice dropped to a tortured whisper. "Just…stop."

Poppy glared at him and continued, "Why did Rufus think we had this necklace? What is this necklace for? Why is it so important?"

The doors behind her opened swiftly, as if to answer her questions, and a woman with the presence of a queen walked through them, with a bodyguard that was standing much too close to her to be just a bodyguard.

Eddie pushed his grief down just enough to reach for his sword, but the woman stopped before she was too close, keeping her posture calm, so no one would feel threatened by her company.

"Rufus was looking for me. He just doesn't know it."

* * *

Pain.

A needle and thread kind of pain.

Something piercing skin and muscles and nerves, being pulled, and then piercing again, just above the last.

 _Thump_.

 _Thump_ , _thump_.

The beat of a heart, racing after another _thump, thump,_ as if it itself had realized that it had pumped blood again.

Oxygen.

Oxygen flooding lungs, filling them to the brim, and raising a once impaled chest.

Spark.

A spark that ignited the brain into processing what was happening.

Twist.

A twist in the stomach, like ringing water out of a shirt.

Jerome rolled off the bed, hitting the floor like a sack of flour because his arms and legs failed to catch him. He lay there, half on his side, on the cold floor, trying to decipher his surroundings. He turned just a little more and heaved, his empty stomach clenching painfully. He attempted to swallow and felt how dry his throat was.

Forcing himself onto his back, he focused his foggy brain on the task of using his unresponsive limbs. First, his right hand. His fingers twitched, his wrist bent forward, and his elbow bent to lift his hand up to his chest. He breathed heavily, eyebrows furrowing. Shaking fingers, drifted over flesh, trying to find the place he had been stabbed. Smooth, naturally pale skin was all he could feet through his fingertips.

There was some pain, in his fingers, in his skin, where the nerves were flashing to life.

He moved his left arm, and then determinedly rolled onto his stomach, lifting his upper body up onto his elbows. All of his bones and muscles were stiff. Sore when he used them. He bent his right leg at the knee, grunting when his arms suddenly gave out from under him. He rested against the clean floor for a second more before trying again: raising up on his elbows, his right leg bending at the knee, and then the same with the left, and he pushed himself up onto his hands. Hands and knees, weakly, painfully, getting used to holding up his weight again. He pushed himself onto his knees alone, taking several deep breaths, and taking in his surroundings.

The castle's infirmary. He was in the castle's infirmary.

He looked down at his bare chest, wincing as his neck strained. His skin looked no different than it felt. No mark, no blood.

He took one more steadying breath and reached for the table beside him, pulling himself onto his feet and using the table to hold his weight when he realized his legs still couldn't do it alone.

He froze, his mind racing, and he reluctantly looked to his left, where his aunt and uncle lay. He let out a small breath, knowing that even with those two bodies, he was alone in the room.

He clumsily reached for a pitcher of water that sat on the table. His hand unclenched around the handle tiredly and he huffed, pushing his unsteady fingers through his blonde hair. He tried again, lifting the pitcher to a glass, and he poured. Most of the water ended up on the table and the floor, but he raised the half full glass to his dry lips and gulped down the water, not even caring when it trickled out the sides of his mouth and down his chest.

He slammed the glass down on the table and a chill shook his body. He bravely pushed off the table, stumbling like a drunk to the bed he had been laying on. He pulled on his blood stained tunic, managing to only clasp it together halfway up his chest, and then sat down to catch his breath.

He blinked quickly. The sudden realization that he had been dead slamming into him. His heart beat faster, pounding into his chest. He could feel his pulse in his fingertips, in his neck, in his forehead, and he grit his teeth as emotion clawed at his still very dry throat. He pushed his fingers into his hair again and tugged on the strands, the pain in his scalp reminding him that he was alive. He squinted at the floor, tears blurring his vision.

His whole body abruptly felt different, lighter than when he'd first woken up, and he could sense a strange weight in one of the pockets of his pants. He reached into it and pulled out a dark red, almost black gemstone. The sunlight from one of the windows behind him did nothing to brighten the gem. He clenched it in his fist, recognizing it as a jewel that resembled the one Azazel of Krodel wore around his long, pale neck.

Jerome pocketed the stone, shot up off the bed, and rushed for the door, adrenalin coursing through his veins.

His mind trained on one sole mission.

* * *

 **I'm really proud of that last scene. I had a whole different thing in mind when I planned it, but it came out like that. :)**

 **"Rooms full of trophies of all the victims before me. Nothing left but the bones, stacked up like a collection. You got me smothered in bliss, you suffocate with a kiss. You take away all the fight, then bring me down to submission." -House of Chains, Apocalyptica**

 **A song from the _My Love Will Not Let You Down - Inspiration Playlist_ on Spotify - go check it out! :D**

 **-Rachel**


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